I love bacon and I love chocolate chip cookies. With this cookie, two of my favourite childhood treats are combined into one salty, chocolate-y cookie for the ultimate indulgence. If these cookies existed when I was a kid I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have eaten anything else.
As a child, I was one of those annoyingly picky eaters. There were very few items I’d actually get excited about. One was bacon. Whenever my mom cooked bacon (rarely) she only let me eat a maximum of two pieces. I could never get enough of that smoky, sweet-salty goodness.
Now that I’m an adult and I can eat bacon anytime I want, I don’t indulge as nearly as much as you’d think. However, I do randomly add bacon to almost anything. Bacon ice cream? Yes please! Bacon vodka? Bring it on. Chocolate chip cookies studded with crispy bacon bits? What could be better? These cookies turned out even more fantastic than I envisioned. Subtly salty with plenty of smokey bacon bits and dark chocolate, these cookies are the ultimate indulgence.
I am chocolate-y, I am baconized: I AM BACON CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE!
Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe adapted from nytimes.com
yield: 9 large cookies
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped
- 8 slices of bacon, finely chopped then pan-fried until crispy and drained on paper towels
- sea salt
Sift the flour, baking soda and powder into a bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Stir in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop in the chocolate and bacon and incorporate. Refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop 9 3 1/2 ounce mounds of dough (the size of large golf balls) onto the baking sheet leaving ample space between cookies. Sprinkle cookies with a touch of sea salt. Bake until golden brown but still soft, 18-20 minutes. Cool on sheet for 10 minutes then move to rack to cool until you are ready to enjoy!
Nice site. I love the photography. I’ve actually had bacon brownies before. Not really my favorite. But I think the trick is to finely chop up the bacon like you did.
Hey there, I’m from Germany and a big fan of this blog, look how far you got ;D I really want to try these but I have kind of a stupid question: When you say the bacon has to be “cooked until crispy” do you really mean cooking? Because “cooking” for me is in a pot of water and I just can’t imagine putting the bacon in there? Or do I have to prepare it in a pan? Thanks for the help!!
Hi Lea,
Pan-fry the sliced bacon in a small skillet over medium heat. It’ll take a little while, but all the bacon will crisp up then you can drain the pieces on paper towels to get rid of the excess oil. Hope this helps!
She might be confused as to the type of bacon which is to be used, American bacon is generally quite different from the bacon encountered in the rest of the world.
No its not!!!!Diff we here in Germany have the same as America and more…
Do you mean 1/2 cup sugar? The recipe looks amazing!
Hi Erica,
Yes, it’s half a cup plus 1 tablespoon.
Approximately how many oz. is 1/2 c of dark chocolate? Also is there a certain % cocoa that you recommend for this recipe?
Hi Lisa,
1/2 cup of chocolate chips is about 3 ounces. For the chocolate, between 50-70% would be yummy. I don’t recommend anything darker than 70%.
Is it absolutely necessary to refrigerate the batter for 24-36 hours? What would happen if I baked it right away? Thanks!
Hi Brittny,
It’s not necessary, but it “cures” the dough, resulting in a richer cookie. It also helps with the cookie not spreading too much during baking. That being said, I’m pretty sure the cookies will taste just fine if you only refrigerate for an hour or bake right away.
Do you have to refridgerate it?
i just tried this last night. i liked the crunchy salty bacon and chocolate taste. definitely have to crisp the bacon really well. thanks for sharing!
Baked these! Love the sweet/salty combo. Add 1/4 tsp of salt to my batter and made it with all brown sugar and used cake flour instead of AP. Only refrigerated them for 5min – couldn’t wait. Baked for 10min and came out super chewy. Yummm. Thanks!
I love adding bacon to desserts! People always think I’m crazy, but the salty/sweet/savory combo is amazing. Your cookies sound to die for!
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